Anybody has any decent British Eurosport links in case their coverage is better than Eurosport Russian and International (like during 4CCs)?

I used to use www.day.to , but it closed down the week after the Europeans. But, if you click on the link, it will re-direct you to the new address for the site.

The picture quality isn't normally great, so if that is what is more important to you, you'll be better sticking with TVTeka.

Originally Posted by Ziggy

Originally Posted by CaroLiza_fan

But, if I am not able to watch full coverage of the skating anywhere, I would still prefer to listen to somebody speaking my own language, rather than listen to Russians/Italians that don't know that they are supposed to stop talking when the music starts!!! (That REALLY winds me up!!! )

Russian Eurosport commentators don't usually talk at all during the programs.

Mmmm. That's interesting. I was basing that comment on my experiences watching Спорт-2 and Россия-2. So, Eurosport's Russian commentators are more considerate, then. That'll be good to know for the future.

The picture quality isn't normally great, so if that is what is more important to you, you'll be better sticking with TVTeka.

Which is why I said 'in case their coverage is better than Eurosport Russia/International.' But so far it looks like the coverage is the same everywhere. Still you never know, there are often last minute changes so better be ready just in case.

But, if I am not able to watch full coverage of the skating anywhere, I would still prefer to listen to somebody speaking my own language, rather than listen to Russians/Italians that don't know that they are supposed to stop talking when the music starts!!! (That REALLY winds me up!!! )

Really? I've never found that. In fact, I much prefer watching streams with Russian or Italian or European commentary since they DO tend to shut up when the music starts, unlike the stupid American and Canadian commentators that natter on and on and on during the programs and won't shut up for even a moment (yes, I KNOW Joshua Farris broke his leg at Nationals two years ago, EVERYONE knows that, you mentioned it 3029876439286729867 times already, NOW SHUT UP!)

American commentators are also bad about talking about other skaters while a different skater is skating. I swear, at Nationals, all I heard about was Gracie Gold and Max Aaron for the entire last group of ladies and men. Like seriously, there were so many great performances from those final flights of ladies and men yet the judges seemed fixated on bringing up Gold or Aaron at least once, and usually it was a lot more than once, during every one of the other skaters performances! I get that Gracie and Max both threw down amazing programs but honestly, can't you say something about the skater on the ice? Given it's the final flight, they are all pretty accomplished and noteworthy skaters... I quite like the British Eurosport guys though! So entertaining!

Hem~~I would rather be happy having the chance to watch the video in whatever language they comment rather than complaining the commentators.

Remember, when the commentators are speaking a language you don't understand, it means you are not the intended audience. Nobody force you to watch. I appreciate the fact these TV networks didn't seek for copyright infringement to take the videos down from Youtube (in that case, no free video, and I may never get a chance to see the competition).

In addition, commentators' job is to comment. If they keep silent, they will be fired.

I have to take back what I said about the Russian Eurosport commentators. They were being extremely annoying during the Ladies SP.

Russian Eurosport is not showing the Free Dance unlike Eurosport International. And tomorrow they are not showing the Men at all and only a very short part of the Ladies. I can't believe it, given how big figure skating is in Russia. It means I have to resort to some crappy free feed. :(

Hem~~I would rather be happy having the chance to watch the video in whatever language they comment rather than complaining the commentators.

Remember, when the commentators are speaking a language you don't understand, it means you are not the intended audience. Nobody force you to watch. I appreciate the fact these TV networks didn't seek for copyright infringement to take the videos down from Youtube (in that case, no free video, and I may never get a chance to see the competition).

In addition, commentators' job is to comment. If they keep silent, they will be fired.

Whoa! Calm down!

I think you are missing the point I was trying to make. Which is probably my fault, as I had written extensively about it before in a different thread a couple of months ago, and couldn’t be bothered repeating it all!

For the following paragraph, I am going to use the times from today’s Junior Ladies FS, as that is the handiest competition to find the times for. But, the same principle applies to the short programmes, and to the senior competitions.

Each competitor is given an 8-minute time slot, of which 3m30s is the performance. So, that leaves 4m30s, which is plenty of time for the commentators to talk about the competitor and to dissect their routine. In addition, if the broadcaster does not use the time to insert adverts, they also have the warm-up session to do a more extensive introduction of each of the competitors.

Frankly, if the commentators kept silent, it would be very hard to follow the competition!

I don’t even mind the odd comment during the routine, if it helps the viewer to understand what is going on.

What I do not like, though, is when the commentators start talking in between routines, but continue on talking well into the routine. In some cases, they talk a full minute into the routine! And 1 minute is a large proportion of the Long Programme, never mind the Short Programme!

I don’t know their names, but there is one Italian woman and one Russian man who are consistently guilty of this. And the worst of it is, from the little bits that I can understand, on a lot of the occasions when this happens, they are not even talking about the competition we are watching! They are talking about the standings in other categories, or how their own country’s skaters are doing in the various categories. This really winds me up!

Originally Posted by silverlake22

I quite like the British Eurosport guys though! So entertaining!

Thankfully, the British Eurosport commentators are not like that. And I like them too. Simon is good to explaining things for those of us who are not technically minded. And, with being a fan of the sport for so long, he can bring up information from competitions that were held before most of the current (senior!) skaters were born!

Chris isn’t too bad either. I like the way he can give us mere fans an insight into what it is like from the skater’s perspective. And at least he is honest in that, being a singles skater, he makes no secret that he does not know much about ice dancing.

I have to admit that Nicky annoys me at times (but not always). He is like Chris in that, being an ice dancer, he doesn’t pretend to be an expert in singles or pairs skating. But, he tries to apply things from ice dancing to the other categories. And it doesn’t always work.

We all have our pet hates, and that is fine. But Nicky makes comments based on his so often that it’s got to the stage that you are almost waiting for him to comment about one of the following:

1. Costumes not suiting the music
2. No continuity in costumes between partners
3. What somebody’s arms are doing (or not doing)
4. “He’s not presenting his lady. You’ve got to present your lady! She’s a beautiful woman, so he should be making sure the audience is in no doubt of that…”

Now, to be honest, I can see his point on most of these things. But, hearing the same comments so often gets a bit boring.

So far in these Junior championships, the only one we have not yet heard is the one about presenting your lady. And, given that we have only singles competitions left, it looks like we will not hear it.

He wouldn’t use it in the gala, would he…?!

But, I don’t want this thread to turn into a discussion about commentators. So, let’s get back to the subject:

Originally Posted by karne

Is there going to be any stream at all for the Men's LP? Such a wonderful battle it will be, and we will miss it! :(

The broadcast started with Hino. Looks like Eurosport International will show more skaters than the British Eurosport broadcast to come after the Ladies.

Ah good, at least I didn’t unwittingly miss any earlier skaters.

Thank you for being so good as to reply and put my mind at rest!

And you were right about British Eurosport missing out skaters. They only started with Ignatenko’s routine, so that was 2 skaters less than International. Hino was one of the ones British ESP missed, but I managed to catch Eurosport France’s coverage of his routine on YouTube. And I (just about!) saw Kolyada before I abandoned the stream for the ski jumping. So, I think I managed to get seeing everything.

Originally Posted by Ziggy

Simon Reed keeps making a lot of mistakes and he keeps wuzrobbing skaters and being totally and utterly wrong about it. I wish he never opened his mouth.

Simon Reed is the older man with the richer, deeper voice than the other 2 commentators.

You know, if you have got your commentators mixed up, that would explain why I was puzzled when you were talking about “Simon’s incredibly stupid ramblings”. Because, although he does sometimes say something that the other commentators are confused by, or which they then have to correct, he doesn’t exactly ramble.

Nicky, on the other hand, does ramble. A lot. And a good proportion of it could be interpreted by some people as being “incredibly stupid”. (Personally, as I am not an expert in all the ins-and-outs of figure skating, I would not like to pass judgement myself). But, in the first comment I posted yesterday, you can see some examples of the sort of stuff Nicky regularly comes out with, and compare them to what you were complaining about in the Men’s FS commentary.

When I was replying to your previous comment, I kinda had a suspicion you might have got the guys mixed up, but I didn’t know for sure. So, that is why I tried to be diplomatic by bringing the other guys into the equation (let’s face it, all commentators of all sports can sometimes have a tendency to ramble), but making a point of not agreeing that the rambling was “incredibly stupid”.

I’m sorry to have to correct you, but it is kinda important when you might be criticising a specific person in the wrong.